time short but energy full

I haven't posted for a while due to dissertation commitments. However if your also pressed for time at the moment give this short workout a go. It took me 5.31 and I was rather shaky after.
Go !
Adam

Barefoot Rehab

Barefoot Rehab

When I posted some rehab ideas for the pain free phase of rehabbing from plantar fasciitis I felt I didn’t really mention any other ideas to help retrain your foot musculature besides sand running.

I would advise that the sand running should be a progression in itself. These exercises I will prescribe now can be seen as a way to safely retrain the active stabilisers of your foot to work in a more positive, functional way.

As I touched upon over the past few days barefoot training seems to have a slight buzz about it currently in the fitness media, Adidas met this buzz in November 2011 by releasing the Adipure trainer http://www.shopadidas.com/product/mens-training-adipure-trainer-shoes/TD035 . Without knowing too much regarding its success I would love to try this trainer as it claims to provide you with the shock absorbance needed to avoid constant bruising from training yet it should allow your foot to work in its intended way. This is something that a traditional running shoe does not.

I heard a great analogy yesterday regarding dropped arches. Relate the foot anatomy to a stone bridge. The most crucial stone of the bridge is at the top. Knock that stone up from the bottom and the bridge would surely collapse downward.

Look in your running shoe. The likelihood is, is that the sole of your trainer will rise up in the middle to meet the arch of your foot. Therefore when you are pounding the pavement, with 7x your body weight, that sole begins to act as that hammer- potentially resulting in the collapsed bridge.

Training barefoot, or with a minimalist shoe allows your arches to work the way they were intended. Acting like an elastic band, perhaps barefoot could put the extra spring back in your step.

I need to credit these exercises and the analogy to Mark Verstegen, founder and owner of athlete’s performance.  http://www.youtube.com/user/athletesperformance

This first exercise will really get your ankle and foot musculature working hard to maintain a stable posture over your front leg. Hold the position shown for 5 seconds, slowly returning to single leg standing upright. Repeat the process 6-8 times.

Secondly. This exercise will not only help your ankle stabilisers but will get your gluteus medius muscle active. By strengthening this it allows your femur to have a stronger- less internally rotated position which further down the chain effects your tibial alignment and therefore will help to avoid an over pronated foot posture.

Hold a squat with the Theraband under tension. Move one knee out to the side in a controlled manner. Slowly take it back in feeling the resistance of the band- perform 8 reps on each side.

This 3rd exercise takes it to the next level and adds an element of Plyometric training to the glute med strengthening whilst taxing your ankle stabilisers further. Therefore you need to be wary when performing bare foot as there is an impact element, perform on a floor with some give if possible. This is where the minimalist shoes come into their own.

Hold the same position as above, perform a side bound, try to stabilise as soon as possible, then perform a bound in the opposite direction. 8 on each side- these exercises can then be progressed when appropriate to sharper cutting movements, perhaps through cones or with another stimulus (potentially sport related-passing a rugby ball whilst performing bounds).

Single dumbbell lunges. Hold a dumbbell on the opposite hand to your lunging leg (ignore image). Lunge forward to gain a 90 degree angle at the knee. Hold for 3 seconds. Push up tall. Having the dumbbell on the one side forces you to address the unbalance with your lateral stabilisers of the lunging leg. Furthermore Mark Verstegen made a good point that the rear leg is also performing a lot of stabilising work through the big toe. Which is vital for the final push off phase of a running gait, perform these 8-10 on each leg.

These can be progressed to a more dynamic exercise without the dumbbell, such as jumping lunges and then to split jump lunges

Finally adopt a semi squat position. Perform a fast sprinting motion on the spot for 20 seconds x 4 sets. This exercise aims to work on the speed of your feet. It requires a quick release of energy which aims to produce a strong ground reaction force- this will result in stronger elastic recoil of your muscles. So focus on the pushing down more than the pull up. Consequently my dissertation is looking into the effects of massage on the time it takes the the musculature to reach a peak force output, I highly doubt it will throw up any groundbreaking evidence but I will post any interesting results with relation to this.

To progress, perform the same motion but perform with movement. 

If you want to continue to work on Glute Med, as over pronation is an issue you can also perform this exercise with the Theraband around your thighs under tension.

Finally, although I have put rough numbers down for repetition numbers these are simply ball park figures. I want you to work to fatigue, so if you get to 8 and you think you have a few reps left- do it. 

As long as your pain free, push yourself.

Adam Rutter 

I would highly recommend listening to the pod cast from S and C coaches James Wilson and Andy Clower. Andy discusses the benefits of bare foot training with a lot of focus on the proprioceptive benefits. For me, personally it provided a clear take home message to try and rehab patients bare foot more often, especially when recovering from ankle instabilities or any injuries in which tactile feedback from the floor is going to prove beneficial.
 http://www.bikejames.com/barefoot-pedaling-flat-pedals/interview-with-barefoot-training-expert-andy-clower/

Adam

plantar fasciitis

So here we go. 

Before we get started I feel I should probably introduce myself and explain why I am further cluttering the internet with sports injury help. As a physio student in my final year I have felt occasionally you can be fighting a tough battle with patients when it comes to self help information on the internet, this is in no means the patients fault. From my limited experience I have found that a patient who takes an active interest in their problem is going to rehab more successfully. However the success lies on the accuracy and simplicity of the information given. Granted all the info is out there, to allow a suitable rehabilitation process from an injury, for the majority of niggles that the average evening pavement treaders and the weekend trail warriors come up against. However sometimes it can be put across in a non practical fashion that can lead to further complicating something that could have been easily prevented.  So that’s the plan, rearrange the current information and hopefully add a few touches of my own. As I am starting this now with 3 months left of my degree it may be an interesting development of my own knowledge as well- which will probably result in an uncomfortable read in a few years time when looking back. But never the less on top of the posts I place up that I feel may be of interest please feel free to email with specific questions or requests to posts.

adamrutterphysio@gmail.com

I am currently training for the London marathon in April. Therefore I felt it would be fitting for the next week or so to add posts regarding common running injuries. Which touch wood I am currently free from.  As running itself is a fundamental aspect of most sports it is not limited to road running/plodding so hopefully there is some benefit to a wider sporting population.

Plantar Fasciitis

Straight to the business end of the runner. The picture below shows exactly where I am referring too when discussing the plantar fascia.

To save any unnecessary reading on your part I will begin with the potential signs and symptoms to allow you to make an informed guess as to whether it is the plantar fascia that is causing your heel pain.

Signs and symptoms

·        

     PAIN- this is going to be the initial reason that sparked your interest in self diagnosis, in the case of plantar fasciitis the pain will be in the bottom of the foot with local pain on the bottom of your heel

·       

           The pain may be brought on instantly when you run, or after a short distance- it is likely that after the run the pain will have increased. Usually patients would refer to it as an ache, or burning.

·       

            The pain is not exclusive to when you run. Walking may cause the pain, some footwear may cause more discomfort than others. Are your shoes offering you the support you need ??

·        

      Pain may be worse in the morning when you first get out of bed.  Overnight your movement will be limited. Therefore inflammation may build up. As part of the body’s natural inflammatory process chemicals arrive that the pain receptors in your foot do not appreciate. Therefore your pain is greatest in the morning. This may be exaggerated by a busy day previously. In some cases once you have been moving the foot for a few minutes or showered the pain may decrease.

·        

     It may be tender to touch the underside of your foot

·         

     The underside of your foot may feel generally tight

What ?
 If you are experiencing any of those symptoms then you may find it interesting to read on.

        Plantar fasciitis is an inflammation of the thickened band of fibrous tissue that runs from your calcaneal tuberosity (heel) through to your metatarsal heads. This tissue helps to support the arch of your foot. Excessive stressing of the fascia can cause micro tears of the tissue resulting in further pain.

The inflammation and pain is caused by overstretch and overuse of the fascia. 

This is generally down to other underlying biomechanical issues

• Flat feet.
• Shoes with little support
• Weight gain
• Over pronation
• Tight plantar fascia (PF)/ gastroc-soleus complex

These underlying issues may have been with you for years therefore not being the immediate reason for the pain (although they would need correcting) it is when you couple the poor biomechanics with an increase in load that your body starts to fail. For example- have you increased your mileage recently? Changed your running shoe, perhaps to a more lightweight flat? Changed running surface? Any one of these variants could be the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back (or caused your heel pain)

Advice

Exercise limitation is always a hard thing to advise- especially when so much of physiotherapy is grounded in exercise prescription. However cessation of the aggravating activity is the most sensible option. However don’t take this as a professionally prescribed excuse to swap running for recumbence or badminton for box sets, as there are many other activities to maintain your fitness levels that limit the stress applied to your heel. Cycling and swimming would be my personal suggestions as both are very low impact. However if the heel pain is felt during the exercise, stop.

I feel it is important to split the advice given into 2 categories to enable you to gain an understanding of why you are performing the activities.

Pain relief	Rehab
NSAID	PF stretch
Heel cups/insoles	Calf stretch
Limit use of high heels	PF strengthening
Ice massage	Appropriate choice of permanent insoles to encourage supinated foot posture
Taping	Self massage
Night splint

Pain Relief

As it is an inflammatory condition it is paramount to get on top of pain relief- specifically the inflammation. Therefore over the counter NSAID such as ibuprofen can be beneficial when taken as the recommended dose.

A heel cup will help to reduce the impact on the tender area during heel strike. Whereas an insole with help correct your potentially poor foot posture which will aid the natural shock absorbing ability of your foot and ankle

Boys and girls take a step down from the high heel for a short while, you wont be looking too good in those lucky heels if your grimacing the whole night.

Ice massage. I would advise to put a water bottle in the freezer. Once its frozen place it under your foot and roll it for around 8 minutes. You will gain the beneficial effects of massage with this technique

Correctly taping your foot can provide immediate pain relief for some patients by taking the tension off the PF

Rehab

This is the PF stretch, I would advise to stretch as far as comfort allows, hold for 20 seconds. Attempt to perform 3-5 times a day

This stretch can be coupled with a standard calf stretch to help to release some tension from the ankle, and to encourage a better foot posture in the long term

To help strengthen the PF and the foot musculature place a sheet under your foot, whilst sitting attempt to create a higher arch by scrunching the sheet. Perform this 8-12 times. (Over the internet it is hard to prescribe amount of reps, as people will fatigue at different levels) the one thing I would stand by is work within the limits of pain.

Ideally insoles will be prescribed by a professional. But when it comes to running it is vital to have your gait analysed to ensure you have the right support to limit further injury with your running style. You can also pick up insoles over the counter at chemists and sports shops. They may provide you some relief.

Self massage is just a case of getting stuck in really. This can be done with your hand or a selection of balls. As you can imagine the massage pain will increase as you go from a tennis ball to squash ball to golf ball. Have a play see what you like/ dislike. I expect this to feel uncomfortable, but if it is making your pain significantly worse after the massage reduce the pressure in which you are performing it.  

It doesn’t stop there. Time to being pain free is very variable. Some may experience pain reduction in a matter of weeks whereas for others it may take months- even years. 

However once you are pain free there are exercises you should continue to perform to address the underlying issues we mentioned earlier.

The gait analysis is the first step. This will allow you to return to running safe in the knowledge that your feet a supported.

Take up bare foot running. This isn’t practical I appreciate. However when your foot is in a running shoe the 26 muscles of your foot do not have to work as hard to stabilise. Therefore taking it back to basics and running barefoot is ideal; the most realistic way to perform this is on sand. With the added difficulty of trawling through the soft sand your muscles will be working harder than ever.

  Alternate the running surface. Constant pounding of the concrete can be taxing on your body not to mention the boredom (personally). Mix it up find some grass, Forest tracks, or hit the dreaded treadmill.

There we go.  I hope you found some interest in this instalment. And remember this is in no way a replacement for a professional assessment and treatment session. So if you have any concerns get a referral.

Thank you

 Adam Rutter